Evil Incarnate
by SavageLarxy
Summary: Abused by his dad. Stuck at a private boarding school where the senior students control the young ones. In love with a certain blonde who's part of the kitchen staff there. Why does everything seem to go wrong for Axel? [AU AkuRoku]
1. Prologue

**There's only one word for the likes of you... and that's "evil". Evil in it's purest of forms. AU AkuRoku  
**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the characters or the settings or anything like that. I do not own some of the story elements either, 'cause those belong to the Swedish writer Jan Guillou.

**A/N:** So, my first Kingdom Hearts fan fic. And my fifth story in English. So be nice to me, I'm Swedish, 'kay? And I don't have any beta reader, so if anyone would want to help me out, just tell me!

Anyway, I was watching a Swedish movie called "Ondskan" (translation: "Evil") for the umpteenth time a couple of days ago when I got the idea of putting the KH characters in it and adding an AkuRoku love story. Sounded great, IMO. So I started working on the prologue earlier today and here it is! Of course, I won't stick to the plot of the movie (or the book it's based on) all too much, 'cause I will add my own touches and plot twists and stuff!

**Warning!:** Contains some swearing, violence and (later on) boyxboy love. The rating will probably change as the story goes on. Soooo... get away from here if you have any problem with any of that!

Now, the prologue!

* * *

Prologue

The blow hit him right at the nose.

The sound of a nose snapping sounded while all the cheers got louder. Everyone in the audience was excited, because they got what they had come for. The had wanted to see blood and blood was what they got to see. The red fluid flowing out of the small brown-eyed blonde's broken nose was enough to satisfy the audience slightly.

With a scream of pain, the blonde flew backwards before landing on the rough asphalt and grazing both of his elbows. He loudly moaned, putting both of his hands over his nose in an attempt to stop the substantial bleeding.

Axel pulled back his fist as he coldly stared down at the helpless blonde. _You're not so fucking cocky anymore, are you?_ he silently thought. He ran his fingers through his spiky red hair before walking up to the blonde with determined footsteps.

The audience encouraged him even more. They got a kick out of seeing a really good fight and that was what Axel intended to give to them. If he was going to kick someone's ass, he might as well do it in a stylish way. So... what would he do this time? A broken nose was not enough to fully satisfy the audience. He had to do something more to the small cheeky blonde. A broken arm, perhaps? No, he had done that to someone else the other week. He thought it was time to smash some teeth out this time.

Axel quickly bent down next to the blonde. He pulled the smaller boy up in his shirt collar while he threateningly balled his fist. The blonde made a pathetic attempt to shake his head as he mumbled something incomprehensible about "mercy", blood flowing out of his nostrils.

The first blow.

The blonde's lips split, which made him whine and cringe in pain. He made a couple of attempts to worm out of Axel's grasp, but to no avail.

The second blow.

It hurt to punch the smaller boy's teeth. Axel would probably get marks on his knuckles from this, which he usually got, but he really didn't care. He was used to marks and pain.

The third blow.

This time, there was a satisfying cracking sound. The audience screamed in excitement. Axel's fists were covered with crimson blood as he straightened up and blankly stared down at the smaller boy. The blonde spit two, no three, teeth out of his mouth. They all landed on the ground along with some saliva-mixed blood. The blonde fell down on the ground, too hurt to move. The audience got wild at the sight of him, humiliated and with a broken nose and missing three teeth.

Axel stared down at the blood-stained boy, not all too proud of what he had just done. But it was, after all, that stupid blonde who had started all of this. He was the one who had challenged Axel. And Axel, being Axel, hadn't been able to turn the whole thing down. If someone wanted to challenge him, then fine. They only had themselves to blame for being idiotic enough to think they could beat him. He probably knew more about violence than anybody else one this whole damned school.

"AXEL, AXEL, AXEL, AXEL!" the audience shouted again and again.

An outsider would most likely find this whole thing barbaric. But Axel didn't think it was. He was _never_ the one to start a fight. He _never_ hit someone who didn't ask for it. The only times he fought was when someone else started a fight with him. And besides that he actually kept himself out of trouble. He didn't like to use violence. Not really. He had experienced so much violence that he almost had gotten used to it. He never backed away from a challenge. But why? He didn't really know. He guessed it was just something in his blood. After all, they do say that blood is thicker than water.

Axel stared down at his blood-stained hands. They were slightly trembling, but the audience didn't notice. And thank god for that. It was actually a little weird to see somebody else's blood – rather than his own – staining his hands. But there really wasn't any difference. Blood looked the same, no matter who it belonged to. But still... it _felt_ different.

Since he had never been into the whole thing of being the center of everyone's attention, he turned around and walked away. The cheers of the audience decreased a little as everyone moved to pave the way for him.

When Axel lowered his eyes to his hands yet again, he saw that he sure enough had gotten a couple of gashes in his knuckles after those punches. Axel shrugged slightly at it. He had gotten so used to it by now that he really didn't care all too much about it anymore.

Empty. That's how he felt. Simply empty. Nothing else. That's how he usually felt after a fight. Because he didn't – unlike some people at the school – get a kick out of beating the crap out of people. He didn't feel happy with himself after beating someone to a bloody pulp on the ground. As said before, he _didn't like_ fighting but he still felt like it was something he _had to_ do.

But then there was the fear, too. It was always there during times like these. The fear for what would happen when he got home. The fear for what would happen when his family heard about what he had done. He shuddered. It wasn't exactly something he was looking forward to.

Axel slipped into the school's bathroom to wash himself off. He had chosen to wear a red shirt this morning on purpose since he had suspected that there would be a fight today. So, what he had just done wasn't all too obvious if someone just looked at the shirt. But the jeans, on the other hand... There was still dark red stains on them, even after trying to wash them with a wet paper towel. He sighed. Well, it wasn't like his life depended on it. After all, it wouldn't be the first time he showed up at a class with blood-stained clothes.

He looked up at his reflection in the mirror above the sink. His red hair was dishevelled and the spikes weren't as well-kept as they used to be. His emerald green eyes looked like they had been dipped in poison, which was quite intimidating. But one thing that was even more intimidating was the fact that he had one purple triangular tattoo below each eye. It made him look like a real bad-ass. He joylessly smiled at his own reflection. _You're the only one who knows who I really am... how I really feel... broken and torn... destroyed..._

Axel took a deep breath before leaving the bathroom. He got his maths books and headed to his class. He already steeled himself for the consequences awaiting him.

* * *

**A/N:** Ooookay, be sure to let me know what you think about this, whether you loved it or hated it! Should I continue or just stop right now? Constructive criticism is always welcome, remember that! 


	2. Chapter 1: The likes of you

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the characters or anything like that. That's property of SquareEnix and Disney. I do not own some of the story elements either, 'cause those belong to the Swedish writer Jan Guillou.

**A/N:** Thanks ever so much for the wonderful reviews, they made me really happy! But, just to let everyone know, the blonde kid Axel beat up **was not** Roxas. Roxas actually won't appear until the third or fourth chapter!

**Warning!:** This specific chapter contains some swearing, pretty serious abuse and a depressive Axel. Not recommended for the faint-hearted ones.

* * *

Chapter 1: The likes of you

Axel was the last one to enter the classroom and as he did, the maths teacher abruptly got silent. Everybody stared at Axel, who was very well aware of the obvious traces of a fight that were left on his clothes. He simply stared back at the class before looking at the teacher, who glared at him.

"Go see the headmaster." Was all the teacher said.

Axel just nodded before walking up to his desk to dump his maths books on top of it. But he was immediately stopped when the teacher cleared his throat and said, "You can take those with you."

Without a word, Axel turned around and went out of the classroom. He could feel how the stares of the class and the teacher followed him until he closed the door behind him.

_Here we go again,_ he thought with a deep sigh. He already knew what would happen. He had experienced this more times than he could count. And it wasn't exactly funny. But what would he do, start turning down all the challenges like a coward? He didn't know if he even _could_ do that. But still... he hated to see the pained expression that his mother always wore every time this happened. She always seemed to be so disappointed in him. _I'm sorry, mom._

Axel went up the stairs leading to the second floor before steering into a wide corridor. As he walked past a wastepaper basket, he threw his maths books into it. He sure wouldn't need them anymore. Not at this school, at least. His footsteps echoed between the walls of the empty corridor, which made him shiver slightly.

When he reached the door to headmaster Xemnas' office, he stopped. He raised one of his hands before knocking on the door. A muffled "come in" was heard from the other side of the door. He opened it and carefully stepped into the office.

The headmaster was an intimidating man with broad shoulders, silvery hair and yellow cat-like eyes. Besides, he had such a deep voice he could scare anyone by simply opening his mouth. He sat behind his desk with a pair of reading glasses sitting on his thin nose. He looked up at Axel when the redhead entered the room.

Axel coldly staded back at Xemnas. Unlike most of the other students at this school, he didn't get scared of the strict-looking headmaster. He was used to things much more intimidating than that.

"How long have you been here at my school, Axel?" Xemnas asked. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the smooth surface of his desk.

Axel thought about it for a moment. When was the first time he had ever entered this school? It must have been...

"For two months." He answered, his voice dripping with boredom.

Xemnas took off his glasses as a muscle under his right eye twitched. Everyone always used to say it wasn't easy for him to get angry, so that twitch couldn't be a particularly good sign. "Exactly." He said, glaring at Axel. "You've been here for two months and this is the _second_ time a student has to be taken to the hospital because of you. It's –", Xemnas stood up from his chair, "– unacceptable!" His voise rose slightly at the last word.

Axel indifferently stared back at the headmaster, his face blank. He had gotten used to this by now. Xemnas would start ranting about how barbaric Axel was and eventually finish by saying that the redhead would be expelled. Axel had heard it a million times before. Every headmaster of his previous schools had said practically the same things about him. He had to put up with hearing the same shit every time it got to this.

"It won't be enough with just expelling you for a couple of weeks, like the last time." Xemnas' voice shook with repressed anger. He glared at Axel with narrowed eyes and an indignant facial expression. "You're permanently expelled from this school. We can't let someone like you bring disgrace upon our fine school. We can't let someone like you _abuse_ our students. Your behaviour is, simply put, inhumane!"

Axel only sighed. He raised his right arm to blankly look at his wristwatch. 11:53. That meant dad wouldn't be home when he got there. That was a relief. _Wait a minute..._ It was Wednesday. So, dad wouldn't get home until dinner. In other words, Axel would hade plenty of time for preparing himself. Mentally, of course. Because he would surely have to "talk" to dad after dinner today.

"But it won't be enough to just expel you from _this_ school."

Axel looked up at Xemnas in surprise. This had to be the first time a headmaster managed to actually catch his attention. What Xemnas had said was something that he had never heard before. Axel couldn't help but feeling slightly uncomfortable as he shifted his weight from one foot to another.

"You will never be able to set your foot in _a single_ high school in this whole country." Xemnas told him. "I will personally see to that."

Axel actually found it hard to keep his expression blank as he internally screamed. Wouldn't _a single_ high school be open for him? Did that mean his endless transferring from one school to another eventually would come to a stop? Did that mean he would never get a proper education? That he would never be able to get accepted to a college? What would become of him, then? _Shit! I knew I would cross the line some day!_ Now he would probably have to work at some shabby drive-through for the rest of his life. _Shit, shit, shit... Not good... __**Not**__ good._

Xemnas walked out from behind his desk. He walked up to the redhead and came to a stop not far away from him. The headmaster shook his head, sighing deeply. "There's only one word for the likes of you," he angrily muttered, " and that's 'evil'. Evil in it's purest of forms."

Honestly, those words hit Axel with such a force he would have staggered slightly if Xemnas hadn't been in the same room as him. Never before had a headmaster ever said anything like that. Axel couldn't help but raise both of his eyebrows in pure surprise.

"You're in need of a serious thrashing." Xemnas spit before nodding at the door. "Get out of my sight!"

Axel immediately obeyed. He spun around and quickly walked out of the office. This was an entirely new experience for him. The only thing he had ever gotten to hear before was how vile he was, but this... Being called "evil in it's purest of forms" was something that had never happened before. Hadn't Xemnas overreacted a little?

Empty. That's how Axel felt right now. Empty, lonely and scared. Scared of ending up like a homeless drug addict or something like that. Scared of how his daily "talk" with dad would develop.

And the part about Axel being in need of a thrashing... it only proved that the headmaster really didn't know a single thing about Axel. Thrashings were what he had to put up with every single day. Thrashings and evil. If Xemnas only knew... Axel lightly shook his head in an attempt to get rid of all his confused thoughts.

_"There's only one word for the likes of you,"_ Xemnas' words echoed through his head as he went down the stairs, _" and that's 'evil'. Evil in it's purest of forms."_

God, why did Axel have to punch the teeth out of that damned blonde? Why couldn't Axel just ignore a challenge when he got one? Why couldn't he just stop fighting? He had always known that this day would come, sooner or later. _Fuck!_ He was just so incredibly... stupid.

Axel balled his fist, slamming it into the nearest locker door. The locker buckled inwards by the powerful blow. But he didn't care. After all, this wasn't his school any longer.

* * *

"Dinner!" Mom shouted. 

Axel feared for walking out of his room to meet dad. He wanted to hide underneath his bed and lie there until the day he died. Well, why not? It wasn't exactly like anyone would miss him, right? But if he tried to do that, dad would probably come running to pull him out from underneath bed. Dad didn't tolerate it when he was late for dinner. And that's why he figured it would be for the best if he immediately went out to the dining room.

Axel put the book he was reading away and got up from his bed. He slowly walked toward his closed door while he swallowed hard. This was _not_ good.

When he stepped into the dining room, everyone else had already taken their seats. Dad sat at his usual seat at the small square table while mom sat on the opposite side of it. Axel's younger brother Sora sat at dad's left and at mom's right. The only empty seat was Axel's, the one at dad's right and at mom's left.

Axel took a deep breath and sat down at the dining table. He stared down at his plate without even daring to look up. He could already feel how dad glared at him with his uncomfortably piercing gaze.

It was quiet for a moment as everyone ate, the obvious tension growing stronger by the minute. Axel didn't even care about what food he ate. But it didn't really matter. After all, the food didn't taste anything and the bites seemed to grow bigger and bigger in his mouth as he chewed on them. God, this was freaking unbearable!

Axel was careful not to make any mistakes – such as scraping with the fork against the plate or spilling milk at the tablecloth while pouring it into his glass. Things like that could make dad double the punishment he had in mind for Axel. And when that happened, it wasn't especially funny.

"So, Axel... I've heard that you got kicked out of yet another school." Dad suddenly said, his voice ominously calm and dangerously gentle. "And the headmaster has forbidden every high school from accepting you, right?"

"Yeah." Axel mumbled. He simply poked at the food with his fork by now. He had already lost the almost the non-existent appetite he had had a couple of minutes ago.

"And what're you going to do now?" Dad asked.

Axel shook his head. "I don't know." He truthfully answered.

Dad was silent for a while before he opened his mouth again. Although Axel stared down at his meal, he knew that his dad was observing him. Closely. And then, dad gave up a deep sigh before saying, "I'll talk to you after dinner."

Axel couldn't do anything but to nod while he wondered which one of dad's "tools" that would be used today. He wouldn't be surprised if dad decided to use the old dog whip with the metallic clip. That was the tool dad liked to use if he was particularly arngry with Axel, and now was definitely a time like that. Axel anxiously bit his lower lip. This was _not_ good. One time when dad had used the dog whip, Axel hadn't been able to take a shower for weeks since the wounds from the lashes had stung too much.

Axel already started to concentrate on that one mental picture of a blue flame – he used to call it "the blue hatred". He clearly saw it in his mind as he let it grow bigger until it was the only thing he could see.

When he finished the meal, he went back to his room with dad following him. As he had suspected, dad brought with him the dog whip with the metallic clip. Axel turned his back against dad after taking his shirt off while the blue hatred continued to blaze in his mind. Then he bent forward, clutching the tall frame of his bed as he closed his eyes.

"I think twenty lashes will be enough for today." Dad said.

And so, he started to whip Axel. Lash after lash after lash while the metallic clip grazed Axel's skin pretty badly. But Axel clenched his teeth and only concentrated on the blue hatred. He distantly heard how mom started playing the piano out in the living room. That's what she always did at times like this since she didn't want to hear the sound of the lashes.

Axel forced the blue hatred to get to be the only thing he knew. He let it devour him, so that it would be easier to absord the pain. He did this every time dad used the dog whip seeing that it was, by far, the most effectively pain-inflicting one out of dad's tools.

His two main rules for this were as following: 1) Never scream and 2) Don't start crying. He knew by now that such things only led to dad getting a kick out of it, which often meant that he doubled the punishment.

Soon Axel actually didn't feel the pain so much anymore. Soon the sound of the lashes faded along with the beautiful paino music. The only thing he saw before his closed eyes was blue. And that's how he wanted things to be right now. But he wouldn't be able to stay like this forever, though. He knew that.

But still, thank god for the blue flame of hatred. Without it, he would never have been able to make it this far. Without it, he would probably have died a long time ago. He was so happy the the blue hatred always was there for him.

He managed to vaguely hear how the piano music suddenly got silent. Then he noticed that even the lashes had stopped. He opened his left eye while the blue hatred started to disappear. Slowly he got aware of the unbearable pain in his back. And soon he also discovered that he was lying on the floor, hot blood running from the wounds the metallic clip had inflicted on his back.

Dad bent down next to him, smiling a little. He reached out his right hand toward Axel. "Friends?" He asked softly.

Axel weakly nodded, reaching out his own violently shaking right hand. "F-friends." He stuttered.

They shook hands with each other before dad straightened up and went out of the room. He just left the bleeding Axel on the floor, without even so much as glancing at him a second time. Axel heard how the door closed before the sound of dad's footsteps trailed off. He waited a couple of minutes before he dared to let a pained moan escape his lips.

He couldn't remember the last time when dad had hurt him this badly. It used to be okay when dad used the shoehorn or his own belt, but the dog whip... it stood on a level of it's own. It made Axel bleed and cry, which the other two tools couldn't manage.

Axel lay on the floor, incapable of doing anything else as he was completely lost within all the pain. He gave up at quiet sob. The blood ran down the sides of his back before landing on the floor beneath him. _If you're in pain, Axel, you really should think about the kid you beat up today,_ the part of his brain that could still think in a clear and rational way said to him. _You've just got your back scratched while he got his teeth smashed out of his mouth. Who do you think is in most pain, hmm?  
_  
The door opened. Axel whimpered slightly, wishing he could just sink down right through the floor. What if dad suddenly thought that twenty lashes wasn't enough? Oh god, what if...

"Axel."

That voice did _not_ belong to dad. Axel didn't even bother to try to turn his head in order to look at mom. He already knew she would wear the same pained expression that always wore at times like this.

Mom sat down next to him. Axel managed to glance a little at her. He saw that she had brought a bowl of steaming hot water and a cloth with her.

"Axel, Axel, Axel." Mom whispered over and over again as she carefully washed Axel's wounds with the wet cloth.

It hurt when the water came in contact with the bleeding wounds. Axel flinched and gasped in pain with his eyes clenched shut. He was barely aware of the tears that ran down his cheeks or the low-voiced whimpers escaping his lips.

If his life would go on like this – which it probably would since he would never be able to earn his living – he would rather take his own life than continue to let dad abuse him like this. After all, no one did anything about it. Mom and Axel himself were both too scared to report dad to the police and Sora hated Axel, so he didn't care at all. And they were the only ones who knew what really went on in this house. The thought of always living his life like this made Axel want to die.

_Fucking shit._

That was the last coherent thought that made it's way through Axel's mind before the darkness consumed him. He couldn't stand this anymore. He simply _couldn't_ stand this anymore.

* * *

**A/N:** Oookay, start reviewing! XP 


	3. Chapter 2: Starsworth

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the characters or anything like that. That's property of SquareEnix and Disney. I do not own some of the story elements either, 'cause those belong to the Swedish writer Jan Guillou.

**pride1289:** Thank you so much for yet another review! And yeah, I know, this human verification is just so totally unnecessary!

**A/N:** Honestly, the last chapter was poorly reviewed. And so, I lost my inspiration for a short amount of time. I'd really like to see some more reviews now in order for me to feel motivated to continue writing, okay?

**Warning!:** This specific chapter contains some mild swearing and a slightly depressive Axel... I promise Axel will get happier as the story goes on! XP Especially when he meets Roxas! -giggles-

* * *

Kapitel 2: Starsworth

It wasn't the beams of the shining sun that woke Axel up. Neither was it the pain throbbing beneath the bandages running across his back. No, what woke him up was the continuous sound of people walking in and out of the house.

Axel groaned when he got out of bed and slowly got dressed. Although the pain intensified every time he moved, he went out of his room. The sound of two voices reached his ears. One of them belonged to mom, but the other one... Who did that voice belong to? He had never heard it before. It seemed like the voices came from the living room.

He rounded a corner, only to find himself almost bumping into a man carrying one of mom's beloved Monet paintings. Axel mumbled a quiet "sorry" before moving to the side in order to let the man walk past him. He stared after him for a while. What the hell was going on? Why did they take mom's paintings? Axel started to get slightly worried.

"You sure now? You know you can't change your mind later." The unknown voice said, a British accent curving the words he spoke.

The voices got louder as Axel stepped into the living room. Mom was standing next to an unknown man in the middle of the room. The man had blonde hair in a crew cut as well as a thin moustache. His cheek bones were well-marked and he had icy blue eyes. He had a couple of golden earrings, which absolutely didn't go well with the spotless expensive-looking black suit he wore.

"Yeah, I'm sure and..." Mom trailed off as she spotted Axel standing in the doorway. She turned around as another one of her paintings got carried out of the house. "Good thing you came, Axel. This is Luxord Hamilton, our lawyer." She nodded toward the blonde man standing next to her.

_Lawyer?_ Would mom finally do something about dad and his rather... abusive manners?Axel started to regain the hope he had lost a long time ago.

"Hey there, Axel!" Luxord friendly said. "Haven't seen you since you were five or so... But I guess you don't remember that, hm?"

Axel slowly shook his head. "No." He truthfully answered.

Luxord laughed. "Well, I didn't think so either." Then he walked up to Axel as he pulled something out of his pocket. A white card with a black print on it. He gently smiled, giving the card to Axel. "Call me if you ever get into trouble, okay? My card might come in handy where you're going."

Confused, Axel stared down at the white card. He didn't understand. What the hell was this Luxord talking about? What did he mean with "where you're going"? Wasn't this about throwing dad into jail? Axel felt how his revived hope quickly faded away. He blankly tucked the card away into the pocket of his jeans before looking up.

"Well, I gotta go now." Luxord said. "Be careful, okay? Both of you. And Axel, don't go losing that card now." And then, he turned around and walked away from there. Axel wasn't sure about what he should feel when he heard the front door shutting behind Luxord.

Axel spun around, gazing at his mom with a quizzical look in his eyes. "Mom, what's going on?"

Mom sighed before walking up to him. "You've been accepted at an all boy's boarding school far away in the outskirts of Twilight Town." She slowly told him. "Your train will leave in one hour, so you have to start packing."

"But how...?"

"Luxord has been our lawyer and friend for a very long time. With his help, we got that school to accept you. Of course, I had to sell some of my paintings to afford it." Mom gave Axel a gentle pat on his shoulder. She looked at him in a motherly way, although there were still traces of worry in her eyes. "Everything will be okay, I promise."

Axel didn't really know what to think of this whole situation. But at the same time, he was moved. Mom sacrificed so much for him to get the education he just had been robbed of. She was such a sweet person. She deserved so much better than what she had to live with right now.

"If you can just make an improvement on your grades and make it through high school without getting into any fights, you'll be able to get into whatever college you want." Mom explained. It actually looked like there was more things she wanted to say, but in the end she simply settled with murmuring, "Hurry now, honey. You don't want to miss the train."

* * *

From his private compartment, Axel stared out of the window of the train. He saw how varying landscapes flew past him while the time slowly went by. The trip would take a couple of hours. And he didn't really have anything else to do than just thinking about his new situation. He had so many confused questions right now, but no one was able to answer a single one of them. 

How was this new school? Was it really as good as mom had said? And furthermore, would he be able to stop fighting? After all, violence had tainted his whole life. It was as though he had been poisoned by all the violence surrounding him... But he would have to change that now. This was his last chance. If he screwed up now, everything mom had done for him would be for absolutely nothing.

Axel deeply sighed. He closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against the cold window. This would probably turn out quite good. Hopefully, at least. A new start was maybe all he needed right now. No one at this new school would know who he was. Which would be a nice change since every teenager back home in Radiant Garden knew his name. But at this new school, no one would know a single thing about the violence woven together with his past. A completely new start... Yeah, that would do him good.

And another positive thing was the fact that he didn't have to meet dad every single day. Sure, the students went back home during the weekends, but he could probably live with that. The wounds from yesterday's lashes would manage to heal a slight bit before it would be time for a new beating. _Unless..._

There should, logically, be some way to stay at school during the weekends. Maybe Axel could ask the teachers to stay and study some extra since his grades weren't all that good? These must be _some_ way to not having to go home.

Maybe everything actually would turn out okay, as mom had said? Axel couldn't really do anything else but hoping for her to be right.

* * *

Axel gave the cab driver his money and told him to keep the change. He took his bag before stepping out of the cab, which quickly drove away from there, leaving him to stare at the new school. 

Mom had told him that the school grounds included both a high school and a college, which meant the school was really big. But "really big" wasn't enough to describe the school. It was, in short, _huge_. There were at least nine different buildings, all in all and every one of them was at least as big as a normal high school building. The school was situated in the outskirts of Twilight Town and it was therefore surrounded by trees and beautiful green areas. You never saw things like this back home in Radiant Garden. The twilight lit everything up, bathing the school grounds in a welcoming warm orangeish glow. Just by looking at it made Axel feel like everything really would turn out okay.

Axel was so fascinated by the sight of the school he didn't notice the teenager that came walking toward him. He was pulled back into reality when he heard a dark voice saying, "Axel Leonhart?"

Axel turned around to his right. He saw a tall teenager – only a couple of years older than himself – standigt next to him. He had to stop himself from raising an eyebrow at the sight of him. The teenager's hair was long and a light shade of _pink_, for God's sake! He had neatly cut bangs hanging down over his forehead and stopping right above his narrow blue eyes. He was dressed in a rather expensive-looking riding outfit, complete with a black jacket and knee-long leather boots.

"Yeah, that's me." Axel said.

The pink-haired teenager smiled as he shook hands with Axel. "Welcome to Starsworth. My name is Marluxia Til Alexandros and I'm a college student here." His words sounded somewhat polished, as if he really cared about the way he spoke.

_Marluxia Til Alexandros?_ Axel thought. _Does he belong to an aristocratic family or something?_

When Marluxia noticed Axel eyeing his riding clothes, he asked, "Do you ride?"

Axel shook his head. "No."

Marluxia smiled widely, his perfectly white teeth gleaming in the bright sunlight. "Good for you. The stable is so far away you really can't manage to go there more than one time every week." He lightly nodded in the direction of the school buildings. "Shall we go, then?"

"Sure." Axel said.

Marluxia turned around and started walking toward the school, Axel hurrying after him. They walked side by side on a paved walkway between all the different buildings while Marluxia explained what they were. Axel couldn't help but thinking about how much money this school must have cost to build. Here they had a gym, an indoor swimming pool, a cafeteria, one school building for the high school students and one for the college students as well as four different dormitories. Marluxia explained that each one of the dorms had an own name. The dorms of the high school students were named Cassiopeia and Orion while the ones for the college students were named Milky Way and Mount Olympus.

Marluxia led Axel into Orion. They went through long beige-colored corridors with countless of doors on each wall. Every door was made of mahogany, a golden number neatly painted on each and every one of them. The pair eventually stopped in front of the door with the number 25, which was located at the very end of one corridor. Marluxia opened the door and they both stepped into the room.

"This is your room." Marluxia explained. "You will have to share it with a certain Zexion Loire. Apparently, he is a rather smart kid. He has got a rich dad working in Treno, from what I have heard."

Axel looked around. It wasn't a particularly big room, but he really wasn't the space-demanding type of person. There were two beds as well as two nightstands in here. There was only one closet, so he guessed he would have to share it with this Zexion as well. A pajamas lay thrown on the right one of the two beds and the nightstand belonging to that bed was buried beneath piles of thick books. Zexion seemed to like reading. A lot. Last but not least, there was a door leading into a small bathroom with only a toilet, a sink and a bathroom mirror. If you wanted to take a shower, you had to use the common shower room of this dorm.

Marluxia turned around toward Axel and said, "Well, as you can see, Zexion is not here at the moment but he will probably arrive shortly. Other than that, you will start following your schedule tomorrow." He nodded slightly as he lay a hand on Axel's shoulder and smiled. "If there's any problem, don't hesitate to talk to me about it. We use 'schoolmate upbringing' here at this school, you see."

Axel thought it sounded good. And not just good, but _really_ good. This Marluxia also seemed to be nice... Hell, everything with this school seemed to be nice! And furthermore, the fact that everything here was so peaceful gave him a feeling that told him there weren't any fights at this school. Well, it really was too early to tell, but he still couldn't imagine there would be any trouble here. And he had quite a lot of experiences with different schools.

"Great." Axel said.

Marluxia removed his hand from Axel's shoulder, letting it fall to his side. "Then I guess I will see you at dinner later."

Axel nodded as Marluxia turned around and went out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Axel looked around once more in the room. Everything seemed to be so unbelievably good here at this school. _It has to be a dream,_ he thought. Schools simply weren't as wonderful as this one. That's just the way it was.

He dumped his bag on the only available bed before sinking down on it himself. He closed his eyes, leaning his back against the wall behind the bed. A cool breeze made it's way to him from outside the open window above his head. But he didn't really care about that. He simply enjoyed the lovely moment of calmness and silence. This was wonderful. It was never like this back home. If everything was like this, his time at high school would be over before he knew it. And then he would be able to get into a college. Of course, he also had to...

_Right... I have to study hard to improve my grades._ Although he actually possessed a bigger intelligence than most of the kids at his age, he had never really used it in the right way. But now, he had to use the intelligence that he had been blessed with. He silently promised himself not to dissapoint his mom. Again.

_I hope everything will be okay... No, scratch that – I'll __**make**__ it okay!_

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**A/N:** Tell me, tell me, tell me what you think, okay? I'd really like to see some more reviews before I start working on the next chapter. Oh and btw, Roxas will make his first appeance in the next chapter! Yay! XD And Marly will play quite a big part in this story... Well, you'll see! R & R! 


	4. Chapter 3: The façade

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the characters or anything like that. That's property of SquareEnix and Disney. I do not own some of the story elements either, 'cause those belong to the Swedish writer Jan Guillou.

**pride1289:** Thanks for yet another review. :) You draw? I'd like to see some of your work!

**Princess of Oblivion:** New reader? Yay! Thank you very much for the review, it actually means a lot to me.

**Terry's random ninja tea tree:** Nice of you to take your time to review. :D Thanks!

**paupu fruits rox:** Haha, yeah, that would definitely be quite a lot of kissing, lol! XD Anyway, thank you so much for your review!

**A/N:** I've been slightly busy with school, but I finally managed to complete this chapter! Sorry if it's boring, I promise it will get a lot more interesting later on as we actually discover the plot of the story! Oh, and Roxas makes his first appearance in this chapter. :)

**Warning!:** This specific chapter contains some swearing, but Axel is slightly happier than in the previous chapters, yay!

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Chapter 3: The façade

Axel had just finished unpacking when the door opened and a teenager stepped into the room. The newcomer was short, at least a head shorter than Axel, and terribly skinny. His hair was dark and silvery, long bangs hanging down and covering the right side of his face. His only visible eye was a color of blue and he wore a couple of thin reading glasses, which were partially hidden behind his bangs.

_This must be... What was his name again? Something starting with a Z... Hmm..._

"Ah, so you're my roommate?" The teenager assumed. He pushed his glasses further up his nose as his gaze lingered on Axel.

"Yeah, I am." Axel said, nodding. "I'm Axel."

"Zexion."

Zexion didn't seem to be as formal as Marluxia since he didn't even reach out his right hand to shake hands with Axel. He simply settled with nodding before heading to his bed and sitting down on it. He took off his reading glasses and put them on the nightstand next to the bed. He then turned his attention toward Axel once again.

"It seems to be great here at Starsworth." Axel said as he sat down on his own bed.

Zexion snorted at his comment. "Yeah, so it may seem."

Confused, Axel frowned. He stared at Zexion, his facial features twisted in a quizzical mask. "What do you mean?"

"You'll see." Zexion cryptically answered.

Axel wondered what Zexion was talking about. Did he mean that Starsworth wasn't all that wonderful as it seemed to be? No, that couldn't be the case... right? All the things Axel had seen simply couldn't be a false façade. He was perfectly sure of that.

"Hey, who was your 'welcoming committee'?" Zexion asked.

"Said his name was Marluxia." Axel answered. "He seemed pretty nice."

Zexion laughed at that. "Well, I guess you could think so." He grinned a little as a glimpse of amusement could be seen in his only visible blue eye.

"Oh yeah? So, what do _you_ think about him, then?"

Zexion shrugged. "I don't think so much." Was the only thing he said. When Axel stared at him, confused, he quickly added, "It's better that way."

Axel raised one eyebrow. Despite Zexion's rather weird talk about Starsworth and Marluxia not being as they seemed to be, Axel really liked him. Very much. Axel got the feeling that Zexion was the type of person who he could become friends with. And Axel's could usually trust his intuition.

It was quiet in the room for a short while. But it wasn't the awkward sort of silence – the one that quickly filled the dining room back home when dad got pissed off at something. No, this was a more restful, and almost really comfortable, sort of silence.

Zexion was the one who eventually chased away that silence. "So, why're you here? 'Cause daddy's disgustingly rich or 'cause you're too good to attend to a normal school?"

The question could have been a taunt. But judging by the friendly tone of Zexion's voice as well as his playful smile, Axel knew it was never meant to be some sort of a taunt.

"Neither, actually." Axel truthfully aswered.

"Then why're you here?" Zexion asked, smiling.

Axel sighed. "This school's my only choice if I want to get into a college."

There was a faint spark of interest in Zexion's eye but when he glanced at his watch, it quickly faded and disappeared. He ran his fingers through his hair and looked up at Axel. "Time for dinner."

They walked alongside with each other as they went to the cafeteria. On the way there, Zexion explained that the students had to sit at the seats they had been allotted with. He said that the high school and the college students sat mixed with each other while the teachers had a couple of tables of their own in the corner of the cafeteria.Obviously, there was some sort of a monitor at each table in order to maintain the order. The monitors were all college students since they were considered to be more mature and to have a better judgement than the high school students.

They entered the cafeteria, which really was more like a grand dining hall than anything else. It was a huge hall with a high ceiling and filled with expensive tables and chairs made of mahogany. The walls were painted in a soft calming color of blue and the windows were very large in order to let in as much light as possible.

"Your seat's over there." Zexion said, pointing in the direction of a table at the very end of the cafeteria.

Axel opened his mouth to ask which chair he was supposed to sit down on, but he soon realized that wouldn't be necessary. The table was actually already completely occupied, except for one empty seat at the end of the table. He quickly nodded at Zexion before starting to walk down toward his seat. He thought he heard Zexion discreetly whisper a "good luck" as he left him.

The students sitting at the tables on the way to Axel's seat got quiet and curiously looked up as he moved past them. It seemed like the news about a newcomer had spread like wildfire here at Starsworth. Not that Axel really cared about that. They could look at him as much as they wanted to.

When Axel reached his table, he sat down at the empty seat and silently looked around. He noticed that Marluxia sat at the other end of the table and assumed that the pink-haired teenager was the monitor here. With Zexion's words in mind, Axel thought he would keep an eye on Marluxia from now on, although he still thought Zexion was just exaggerating.

The students at Starsworth seemed to be careful with arriving in time for their meals since Axel didn't need to wait all too long before the big hall was full. Which was a pleasant surprise, considering the fact that students at other schools always arrived ten or fifteen minutes late for dinner. And that was painfully annoying as the others sometimes had to wait for them.

At first, all the students talked to each other in low-voiced whispers but they gradually got quiet. Soon, silence slowly filled the air inside the huge cafeteria while everybody waited for their food.

A couple of double-doors – the ones presumably leading to the kitchen – were opened and ten white-dressed kitchen staff members walked into the cafeteria, pushing carts with food in front of themselves. Axel watched them without any interest as they quickly and methodically served food to the students, moving their arms and hands with experienced movements. He noticed that most of the kitchen staff members couldn't be more than a couple of years older than himself. _Damn... The world is pretty fucking unfair sometimes,_ he silently thought.

The kitchen staff member quickly walking toward Axel's table suddenly caught his full attention. It was a remarkably short boy who, despite his length, only was two or three years older than Axel. The boy had blonde spiky hair and big sapphire-blue eyes. He had a nicely shaped nose as well as a slightly pointed chin and he was slenderly built and had perfect proportions. And god... he was _beautiful_. Axel couldn't do anything else but to breathlessly stare at the delicate-looking boy.

When the blonde served food to Axel, he noticed that he was staring at him. The blonde stared back and gave Axel a quick, almost unnoticable, smile before moving on. Axel blinked a couple of times. Had he really seen that? Had that blonde just flashed him an insanely wonderful smile?

Axel was just about to turn around and look for the blonde again but he was stopped by a cheerful voice that said, "You're the new one, aren't you?" Axel turned his head in order to look at the teenager sitting on the opposite side of the table.

The teenager had dirty blonde hair in a hairstyle that looked somewhat like a mixture between a Mohawk and a mullet, although some thin locks of hair fell down over his forehead. His eyes were baby-blue and there was something about him that gave Axel the feeling that he was quite naïve but also very nice.

"Yeah." Axel answered.

The blonde smiled. "My name's Demyx. We're in the same grade."

"I'm Axel."

Axel looked around a little before leaning down across the table. He felt as though he could trust that this Demyx person would be honest with him. He was very careful to whisper so quietly that no one else would be albe to hear him, "Hey, what's Marluxia really like?"

Demyx quickly glanced at Marluxia, whose full attention was centered around the food he ate. Demyx turned back to Axel. "Honestly?"

Axel nodded.

Demyx took a deep breath. "Honestly, he's nothing more than an oppressive bastard." He whispered. "Try not to be cheeky, or you'll have some serious trouble with that guy in the future. It's for the best if we here at high school simply try to be invisible."

Axel frowned, confused. _Huh?_ But before he had the chance to ask Demyx about it, the guy next to him – another redhead with a frankly put absurd hairstyle – turned around and started talking to him.

"Y'know, I'm here 'cause dad owns most of the banks in Twilight Town. He wants me to get the appropriate kind of education, so that I won't have to attend to the same school as _normal_ kids." The redhead said, his voice oozing with superiority. He stared at Axel, a condescending expression on his face as he continued, "So, what does _your_ dad do for a living?"

_Who the hell do you think you are, asking questions like that?_ That's what Axel wanted to say. But he restrained himself and settled with simply saying, "That's none of your fucking business."

"What did you say?" Marluxia suddenly said.

It abruptly got awfully quiet around the table as the snobbish redhead turned away from Axel. It almost seemed like no one dared to say anything. Suddenly, the air got heavy with tension and Axel felt like the whole cafeteria would blow up any second.

He looked up at Marluxia. He expected to see the pink-haired teenager looking straight at him, but oddly enough he didn't. Instead, Marluxia glared with his piercing eyes at the redhead sitting next to Axel. The redhead lowered his gaze without being able to say a single word.

"Come here." Marluxia ordered him, breaking the heavy silence.

Without any protests, the redhead obediently stood up from his chair before walking up to Marluxia's seat at the table. Marluxia wiped off his sauce-drenched knife on his napkin before grabbing the knife by the blade. The redhead bowed down slightly, almost as if it was some sort of a weird ritual. Then Marluxia hit him right at the top of his head with the handle of the knife. Although the readhead tried to ignore the pain, he loudly whined.

"Good." Marluxia said. "You can sit down again."

The redhead submissively nodded before heading back to his own seat at the table. His face was twisted in a mask of unspoken pain. It seemed like that hit with the knife handle hurt a lot more than it seemed to do.

Axel glanced at the teachers' tables. It didn't seem like any of the teachers had seen anything of what just had happened. They simply continued eating and talking with each other. A thought suddenly crossed Axel's mind. Maybe... the teachers just _pretended_ like they hadn't seen anything? _Oh, come on!_ he told himself. _Isn't that a little too far-fetched?_

He looked at Marluxia, who calmly had gone back to eating his food again. Okay, now Axel really did believe in what both Zexion and Demyx had said to him. It seemed like Marluxia only pretended to be a well-mannered aristocrat while he really was something completely different. Axel would definitely keep an eye on him from now on. Constantly.

But what caused Axel to worry the most was the fact that no one had protested against what Marluxia had done to that redhead. It was almost as if... it was some sort of a routine. Was that what the monitors did when someone behaved in an unsuitable manner during the meals? In that case, it wasn't only Marluxia who wore a façade, but the whole school.

Axel was overcome with uneasiness. It seemed like this school maybe actually wasn't as wonderful as he first had thought.

He leaned forward across the table again in order to catch Demyx's attention once more. "Why didn't anyone do something to stop that?" He quietly asked.

Demyx looked up at him and shrugged. "It's nothing out of the ordinary. Peppers occur all the time here."

"Peppers?"

"Yeah, that's what it's called." Demyx explained, his voice nothing more than a whisper. "It's worse with the 'one-stitch-hit'. They take the lid of the salt-cellar and hit you with the tip of it at a particular point at your head, so that you have to sew it up with only one stitch." He grimaced as he finished talking.

First of all, it sounded so incredibly wrong in Axel's ears. They simply couldn't do things like that... could they? And second of all, he would never be able to simply receive a pepper like that. Frankly put, it was downright humiliating to have to do something like that while everybody could watch you. Fighting was completely different from humiliating yourself in front of the whole school.

"What happens if you refuse to receive a pepper?" Axel wondered.

Demyx gave him a weird look. "You have stand in a corner and feel ashamed of yourself for not respecting your seniors."

"And if you refuse to do that, too?"

Axel couldn't help but getting slightly excited at the answer Demyx gave him. Because it just happened to be the answer he needed for the most serious one of all his problems.

"You get a permission ban for one weekend."

_Bingo!_ Axel thought, a thin smile crossing his lips. A whole new window of opportunities had just opened up for him.

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**A/N:** You see that button below this text? The one that says "Go"? Press that, okay? You'll get a cookie if you do. :P 


	5. Chapter 4: Classroom number thirteen

**Disclaimer:** I think you know the drill by now.

**pride1289:** I looked at your pictures and they were pretty good! I noticed that you're quite skilled at shading too. Keep up the good work, 'kay?

**Princess of Oblivion:** Oh, believe me, you'll probably hate Marluxia as the story progresses! XP

**kidd12:** I promise to keep writing... as long as my readers keep reviewing! ;)

**Jymac:** Thanks for the review :) And here's you reward: A brand new chapter!

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**Evil Genius of the COCA:** Well, I actually considered having Roxy to be the main character of the story, but I just didn't think his character would fit for the role. That's why he got to be the older one! XD

**A/N:** This was pretty fast! Well, since everything's calmed down for me, I found myself having plenty of time for writing. And since I received a lot of review for the previous chapter, I thought you deserved a new one :)

**Warning!:** This chapter contains some swearing, but that's all!

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Chapter 4: Classroom number thirteen

Axel's first real day at school started with him almost oversleeping. Luckily for him, Zexion took the liberty of waking him up and telling him to hurry if he wanted to manage to eat some breakfast before the classes started. Since Axel never had been the kind of person who spends a lot of time on himself in the mornings, it didn't take long before he was ready to go to the cafeteria with Zexion.

The breakfast went by without any problems. Axel chatted a little with Demyx, who seemed to be the only decent person sitting at his table. The redhead sitting next to Axel kept quiet during the whole breakfast period. He probably didn't want to risk getting another pepper. Axel wasn't sure if he was just imagining things, but he thought Marluxia sectretly observed him from his end of the table.

From his seat, Axel swept his gaze all over the cafeteria in order to search for the blonde boy from the kitchen staff he had seen yesterday. And he saw him, but this time the blonde went to another table. Instead, a pretty blonde girl served breakfast for the ones sitting at Axel's table. He couldn't help but to wonder if she and the boy were related to each other. They looked like each other; fair hair and big blue eyes.

When the breakfast was over, Axel, Demyx and Zexion walked to their first class – maths. They went into the high school students' building, where the walls were painted in yellow and the floor was made of a cream-colored kind of marble. Axel got dizzy by all the narrow winding corridors they walked through. He was grateful for having Demyx and Zexion at his side. The place was a maze! If it hadn't been for them, he would have never found his way here. _Maybe they sell maps of the school here somewhere?_

Axel was slightly worried for how it would go at the class. Maths wasn't exactly his favorite subject. He had never been especially ambitious or interested when it came to maths. He explained it to Zexion and Demyx.

"You know, I could tutor you. If you want to." Zexion said, stopping in front of the door to the maths classroom. He turned around, his facial features encouraging.

"Really?" Axel said, surprised.

"Sure."

"Cool!"

Zexion gave him a lopsided grin before opening the door and walking into the classroom.

The class went by pretty fast and without any trouble, much to Axel's surprise. They worked with algebra, which was one of the few things Axel actually had taken any interest in at his old school. But he would still need help in order to get better grades. Also, when he secretly leafed through Zexion's maths book, he realized he had missed out on many things.

After maths, it was time for a double period of history. It was probably the only subject Axel had actually ever cared for. The past was something that had always fascinated him. That was why history was the only subject he had received an A in.

When the class was over, it was time for lunch. This time, Axel didn't even see the blonde boy at all.

Axel picked up his tableware in order to start eating, but he accidentally dropped the knife on the floor. "Shit!" He hissed, pushing away from the table to be able to bend down and pick up the knife. But before he managed to do that, he was stopped by a very familiar voice.

"What was that?"

Axel looked up at Marluxia, who glared at him from the other end of the table. Axel nonchalantly raised one eyebrow as he stared back att the pink-haired boy.

"Sorry, maybe I cursed." He simply said before making another attempt to pick up the knife.

"Come here." Marluxia ordered and started to clean his own knife with his napkin.

_He's gonna give me a pepper,_ Axel thought as he remained sitting at his chair, crossing his arms. _But I won't let him do that._ Axel demonstratively shook his head, as if saying he sure wasn't going to do as Marluxia told him to.

"No." Was the only thing Axel said.

Marluxia blinked. He stared at Axel, looking as if he didn't believe what he was hearing. But he quickly chased away the surprise and calmly put down his knife on the table. He angrily glowered at Axel. "Then it's the corner for you." He said, nodding in the direction of a lonely corner of the cafeteria.

Axel frowned as he glanced at the corner. Once again, he shook his head. "No." He repeated, his voice firm and determined. "I won't."

By now, everyone at the table had gone quiet. It almost seemed like no one even dared to breath anymore. Everybody simply waited for seeing how the scene would unfold. Somebody refusing to both receive a pepper _and_ standing in the corner really seemed to be out of the ordinary here. Maybe it had actually _never_ happened before.

Marluxia's eyes almost seemed to darken. A muscle at his jaw twitched slightly and he clearly had problems with keeping his face expressionless. "Then you'll have to come to the council tonight, right after dinner."

_Huh? The council?_ What the hell was the council? But despite his surprise, Axel's face still showed nothing but blankness. He indifferently stared back at Marluxia and nodded. "I'll be there."

The rest of the day went by pretty fast. But instead of concentrating on what the teachers said, Axel pondered over this council Marluxia had talked about. What could it be? A lot of different theories crossed his mind, but he waited with jumping to any conclusions. And so, when the last class – English – was over, he immediately found his way to Zexion.

"What's the council?" He quietly hissed.

Zexion sighed. "Please don't tell me you've been cheeky to any college student!" He groaned.

"Yes, I have." Axel said.

Zexion shook his head and pulled Axel with him out to the school yard. Axel was surprised to find that Zexion hurried across the school grounds and against the forest surrounding the school. _Where are we going?_ he wondered as he willingly let Zexion lead the way.

They stopped right at the outskirts of the forest. Zexion quickly looked around. The sky had already darkened – it _was_ after all November – and no one would be able to see them in the darkness. Zexion let go of Axel's wrist and bent down. He brushed away some leaves on the ground, revealing a packet of cigarettes along with a silvery lighter lying there. He picked up both of the objects before straightening up.

Zexion opened the packet. "Do you smoke?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"Here, take one." Zexion offered Axel the package. Axel carefully pulled out one of the cigarettes. Zexion took one for himself and closed the packet. He lit both his own and Axel's cigarette before burying the lighter and the packet beneath the leaves again.

Axel hesitantly looked at his cigarette as smoke slowly floated up from the glowing tip. "Are we really allowed to smoke?" He skeptically asked.

Zexion took a drag of his own cigarette. "No." He answered. "That's why we're here, where on one can see us. But _if_ you get caught, you'll get a one weekend permission ban. If you get caught twice, you'll get a one weekend permission ban _and_ a so-called "penal servitude" for one weekend. The third time, you get expelled."

_God, that's really encouraging!_ Axel sarcastically thought, but he didn't say anything as he started smoking.

"So you've been called to the council?" Zexion said.

"Mhm."

"Shit, Axel, you sure know how to get yourself into trouble fast." Zexion shook his head, as if wordlessly saying how damned hopeless Axel was.

"What do you mean?" Axel quizzically raised one eyebrow.

"The council consists of a bunch of college students who take care of the ones who are extremely cheeky." Zexion told him. "If you don't talk back at them, _maybe_ they'll go easy on you. If not..."

Zexion slowly trailed off. He was quiet for some time before letting out a deep sigh and saying, "Those fucking members of the council think that they stand above the law and that they can treat us the way they want to. They think that they control... no, not just control... they think that they _own_ this school and that they can do as they please!" Anger slowly stained Zexion's words.

"But what about the teachers?" Axel said. "Don't they do anything about it?"

Zexion snorted. "The teachers? They don't give a shit about what the students do! They pretend not to see anything, although they do know what's going on here at Starsworth." He violently shook his head once again.

Axel realized something. If the college students were the ones taking care of the order here while they were oppressing the younger ones, there could be some problems. Some very serious problems. If someone provoked Axel too much, he could very well smash their faces in. And that was exactly what Axel wanted to _prevent_ from happening. He sharply exhaled.

"Damnit!"

Zexion looked up at him, surprised at Axel's sudden outburst. Axel quickly calmed down before taking yet another drag of his cigarette.

"What happens if you punch a college student?" He asked.

Zexion looked at him, slightly confused. "You get a permission ban for a couple of weekends."

"What about if you punch a member of the council?"

Zexion looked really surprised. He stared at Axel in a way that said he thought the redhead was crazy. "You immediately get expelled."

Axel hissed a number of carefully chosen curses. "That's _not_ what I came here for!" He muttered.

Luckily for him, Zexion was tactful enough not to ask what he meant since he didn't really feel like talking about it right now. But he would have to tell Zexion, sooner of later.

They silently finished their cigarettes before they both put them out. Zexion picked up a piece of moss from the ground and divided it into two pieces. He gave one of them to Axel.

"Chew on this to get rid of the smell."

* * *

Axel patiently waited outside classroom number thirteen. The council was held each Friday after dinner inside that classroom. There was a couple of other boys there as well. They were probably one or two years younger than himself. They looked scared and worried while Axel simply focused on being completely calm.

Eventyally, a short blonde boy came out of the classroom, looking downright broken-hearted. The other boys asked him how it went. "Three permission bans." He answered, his voice sounding broken. The other two boys compassionately comforted him.

A tall teenager with silvery hair and long bangs covering his pale green eyes came out of the classroom. His hair was so long he could easily be taken for a girl at first sight. But when you looked at him a second time, you saw he could impossibly be a girl. He was much too muscular to be one.

"It's Axel's turn." He said.

Axel carefully studied him. He didn't seem to be the kind of guy you wanted to pick a fight with. Those muscles looked pretty threatening, although Axel himself had some muscles of his own. Another thing he noticed was that the silver-haired teen blinked a lot.

Axel straightened up and followed the teenager into the classroom, closing the door behind him. The silver-haired boy sat down at his seat behind a desk. There were four other college students sitting there as well. They were all dressed in black, as if they actually thought they looked like a real court.

Marluxia sat in the middle with a ridiculous copy of a judge's club in his hand. The silver-haired teen sat at his right, still blinking at least twenty times more every minute than a normal person did. At the right side of him – at one of the desk's ends – was a black-haired teenager with silvery streaks sitting. He had a scar on his left cheek and an eyepatch covering his right eye. The only visible eye was yellow and hawk-like. A boy with long blue hair sat at the left side of Marluxia. He had a scar shaped like an "X" between his eyes, which were of an intensively yellow color. At his left, there was a blue-eyed blonde with slicked-back hair and a lock neatly hanging down over his forehead. He had a scar stretching from above the left eye to below the right one.

Axel stared at the gathered college students. God, this was fraking laughable! Did they actually think that people took them seriously?

But then, Axel thought of the boy who had gotten three permission bans and the other high school students who waited outside the classroom for their judgements. They all took this whole thing seriously. In their eyes, this ludicrous imitation of a court was as terrifying as a _real_ court.

"Do you know why you're here?" Marluxia asked.

"Because I cursed?" Axel guessed.

"No, because you refused to obey a direct order from your superior." Marluxia corrected him. "That means that you are guilty of the grave crime of insubordination."

"Oh, so just 'cause I didn't want to humiliate myself in front of the whole school, you have to gather and pretend to be a court?" Axel said mockingly.

"Cheekiness in front of the council!" The silver-haired teenager at the right side of Marluxia exclaimed.

"What the hell? What did I do now?" Axel wondered.

"And use of careless language!"

"Since you want to imitate a court, you should also follow the rules of a real court. And in that case, you can't convict me for things like swearing or not obeying you."

The court didn't really have something to say in their defence. Nobody said anything for at least a couple of minutes. And Axel was starting to get really impatient. He wanted to get out of here. Why would he waste his time on simply being stared at?

"I'm leaving now if you're not going to do something." He said.

"No, you're staying!" Marluxia quickly said, his voice slightly edgy.

Axel impatiently looked at him.

"So, do you admit that you are guitly of insubordination?" Marluxia asked.

"No, I don't think I've done anything wrong." Axel answered.

Marluxia looked really irritated by now. It was clear that he had to restrain himself from blurting out something rather unfriendly any minute.

"A continuation of cheekiness in front of the council." He simply stated. "Apologize."

_For what?_

"No."

"Yes. Apologize."

"No."

"Apologize." Marluxia repeated once again, strained calmness tainting his voice as he gritted his teeth. Obviously, his patience was about to run out. The other members of the council didn't look especially happy over Axel's behaviour either.

"No, I won't." Axel firmly said.

"Apologize!" Marluxia angrily snapped.

"No."

"In that case, the council gives you five permission bans to spend inside the jail as well as penal servitude for three weekends because of insubordination, unpleasant behaviour, cheekiness in front of the council and unwillingness to cooperate." Marluxia decided, hitting the desk's smooth surface with his dumb-looking club. "Does the rest of the council have something to add to this?"

No answer. Axel was allowed to leave.

He couldn't help but feeling slightly happy. This was actually pretty good news. Because this meant he didn't have to go home for at least eight weekends.

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry, no Roxy in this chapter :P But I promise he'll be in the next one! 


	6. Chapter 5: Roxas

**Disclaimer:** I really don't think I have to do this for every chapter...

**pride1289:** You still review this story. :) Thanks!

**hermione494:** Permission ban: A student is not allowed to go home during the weekend. Penal servitude: You'll find out, trust me! XP

**Jymac:** Oh, I promise you'll see a lot more of that fake court as the story progresses!

**Abhorson:** Don't feel that way. _I'm_ the one who feels like an idiot. -.-' But still, thanks for the review!

**Evil Genius of the COCA:** Penal servitude... Well, you'll find out about that! ;)

**A/N:** Okay, so school's _finally_ over, thank god! XD And tomorrow I'm going away for vacation in Portugal and I'll be there for a week. But I will bring my laptop with me, so I can write if I find the time to do so... :) Anyway, there probably won't be any new chapter for a week and a half or so. Just so you all know!

**Warning!:** This chapter contains some really mild swearing.

* * *

Chapter 5: Roxas

It was time for the first round of penal servitude during the first weekend.

Zexion had told Axel it usually wasn't all that bad. In most cases, it consisted of something pointless, like carrying rocks from one place to another. Axel asked what what the college students' intentions were with giving the younger ones work like that. Zexion simply said the only intention was to force the cheeky students to work hard, so that they would realize it would get even worse if they kept behaving like they did. And since Axel had behaved in such a "rude" manner in front of the council, maybe they had some harder task in store for him.

When the alarm clock woke Axel up in the morning, it was pretty strange to see Zexion's bed being empty. Zexion had left earlier this morning in order to catch his train home. But he had left Axel a note, which said: '_Please, take it easy, okay?_' Axel couldn't help but to smile slightly when he read that.

There was a careful knock on his door. When Axel opened it, he saw a younger and very nervous high school student standing there.

"Are you Axel?" The boy asked.

"Yeah."

"Marluxia wants you to attend to the school yard in ten minutes. And you can't be late."

"What happens if I am?"

"They'll beat me up." With that said, the terrified high school student hurried away from there.

Axel stared after him. Oh god, could those college bastards really do things like this? How could they even stand living with themselves, behaving like this? And why the hell did no one do anything about what happened at Starsworth? It was freaking absurd!

But in order not to get into trouble, Axel quickly got dressed and went out to the school yard. Marluxia along with the silver-haired teenager – who's name apparently was Riku, the right hand of Marluxia – were already waiting for him there. Marluxia glanced at his expensive Rolex wrist-watch when Axel stopped in front of them.

"Well, Axel –", Marluxia looked up, "– it looks like we don't have to give our little messenger boy a beating, after all."

Axel didn't say a word. He was careful with keeping his facial expression blank, which made him unreadable.

Marluxia's lips formed a lopsided and slightly sadistic grin. He nodded toward something on the ground in front of his feet. Axel looked down and spotted a shovel and a tape measure. _Huh?_ He looked back at Marluxia.

"Your work today is to dig a hole in the ground right here." Marluxia said, pointing. "You'll make the hole exactly one meter long, one meter wide and one meter deep. If you don't..."

He trailed off in a way he probably thought was supposed to be threatening. Axel on the other hand just found it really ridiculous.

"We'll come back later for an inspection." Marluxia explained.

And then, he turned around and walked away from there alongside with Riku. Axel venomously stared after them before sighing and bending down to pick up the shovel and the tape measure.

* * *

When Axel had finished digging the hole quite some time later – he had lost the track of time after an hour – he straightened up and obediently waited for the inspection. It would have been okay if the weather had been fairly good. But right now, that wasn't the case at all. Because the ominously black clouds hanging from the sky ever since the morning had eventually started to rain. And it was insufferable to simply stand there in the rain and wait, soaked to the bone.

Axel was unbelievably cold. He violently trembled, which made him scared for the possibility of getting a cold because of all this. But he had done a good job, at least. He had been very careful with all the measures while digging. He was convinced that the hole would get accepted during the inspection.

When Marluxia and Riku showed up, they both carried an umbrella each. It didn't even look like they had gotten a single drop of rain on themselves. And on top of that, they wore thick long coats, making it look like they both were pretty warm.

They stopped in front of the hole in the ground. What surprised Axel the most was that no one bent down in order to check the hole. Instead, they both simply stared down at the hole for a short amount of time.

"Good job." Marluxia said, amused. "Do you know what you are going to do now?"

Axel expressionlessly looked at him. "No, what?" He asked without any interest, although his voice was shaking with cold.

"You are going to fill up the hole."

Both Marluxia and Riku smirked maliciously when they quickly walked away from there, leaving Axel alone to silently curse for himself.

* * *

It had gotten dark when Axel's round of penal servitude eventually was over. He went to the shower room of his dormitory, shaking as rain constantly dripped from him. His fingers were stiff as he undressed before walking into one of the shower stalls.

He showered beneath the hot water a long time before returning to the dressing room. He put on some clean and, most importantly, dry clothes and then went to the cafeteria. He was starving since he hadn't had any time to eat breakfast this morning. Although, since it was too late for dinner, he wasn't sure if he could get anything to eat. But it was worth a try, wasn't it?

He stepped into the cafeteria. It was empty and terribly silent. The only sound was some muffled talking that came from the other side of the double-doors leading to the kitchen. It was strange to see the cafeteria looking so... abandoned.

Axel walked up to the kitchen doors in order to try to open them. Locked. _Shit!_ he thought, grimacing. He looked through the small round windows placed in the kitchen double-doors. The only thing he saw was an empty and short hallway. But someone had to be somewhere in there since he could still hear the talking. He decided to wait here for someone to come out of there.

Axel walked over to his table at the other end of the big hall. He sat down at his seat and sighed with relief. His hands ached and were full of blisters caused by the hard and exhausting work. At least he wasn't cold anymore.

Once more, he wondered why nobody did anything about what went on here at Starsworth. The teachers... Why didn't _they_ care about what the students did? It all could end in a really bad way if things continued like this.

Axel leaned down over the table, letting his forehead rest against the surface of it. He closed his eyes. His whole body was sore. He hadn't expected this day to end in a way like this. The tiredness quickly washed over him, like an enormous tidal wave.

He thought about his mom, wondering what she was doing right now. She probably played the piano while dad and Axel's nasty younger brother watched some movie on the TV.

Although this school seemed to be pretty twisted, Axel wasn't going to give up. Not now. He had to graduate from high school first. He didn't want to give his mom yet another reason to cry for. She already had enough of those the way things were now. He wanted her to be proud of him, for once. That would be a pretty nice change.

Axel heard how someone opened a door before closing it again. He straightened up, the tiredness quickly fading away. He glanced over his shoulder and almost received a shock from what he saw.

The beautiful blonde boy he had seen the other day came out of the kitchen carrying a tray, on which there was a plate of food as well as a glass of juice. The blonde determinedly walked toward Axel, who simply stared at him. When he reached Axel, he put the tray down on the table in front of the redhead.

"Eat." The blonde softly instructed.

_Am I imagining things?_ Axel wondered. "Thanks." He said gratefully before starting to eat.

The blonde remained standing there beside Axel, looking at the redhead. By some reason, it felt like those sapphire-blue eyes of his could see right through Axel and read him as if he was an open book. The blonde had such a straightforward and fearless expression, but it still wasn't unpleasant to be observed by him.

Eventually, the blonde sighed and sat down on the seat on the opposite side of the table. "Did ya get penal servitude?" He asked.

Axel couldn't help but to notice a certain dialect in the blonde's words. He spoke in a drawling kind of way, which made him sound like a real redneck. Axel wasn't sure of where people spoke with that kind of dialect. But nevertheless, it was still very beautiful. The dialect gave the blonde's words a nice ring, making his voice really unique.

"Yeah." Axel answered, grimacing slightly.

The blonde nodded, a glimmer of compassion in his eyes. "Y'know, Marluxia an' those college bastards really deserve to get beaten up themselves. That'd do 'em good."

"But you get expelled if you hit a member of the council." Axel protested.

The blonde laughed a little. Axel thought it was the most wonderful thing he had ever heard. "I know that." The blonde said, his eyes glittering. "I only meant they _deserve_ a real beatin'."

Axel smiled slightly. "Yeah, I know, but that won't do much help, will it?"

"No, I'm afraid it won't."

Axel shrugged his shoulders. He grasped the glass and drank of the juice, which felt good for his dry throat. When he put the half-full glass down again, the blonde was still looking at him. There was something so beautifully straightforward about the blonde, it almost seemed a little scary.

"So, where are you from?" Axel curiously asked.

"Destiny Islands."

"Oh."

Axel remembered the pictures of Destiny Islands that had been in the geography books of the ninth grade. Apparently, it was one of the most beautiful places on earth. Unfortunately, he couldn't recall a single fact that he had read about Destiny Islands. Which meant he couldn't impress the blonde with any knowledge about the place.

"An' what about you?" The blonde asked, sounding interested.

"Radiant Garden."

The blonde suddenly got a really dreamy facial expression. "I'd like to go there someday." He mumbled. "I read there's plenty of jobs there and that's exactly what I need."

"So why don't you just go there?"

"I have to save money to afford with somewhere to live and things like that. An' that'll take some time since I send half of my salary home to my parents."

Axel couldn't help but to admire the honest manner of the blonde. If Axel had been the one to say all that, he would have lowered his gaze a long time ago. But the blonde didn't. He simply sat there, firmly looking straight at Axel. Which must mean that he was very strong and had a durable mentality.

Axel silently ate his food for a while before the blonde started talking again.

"What's yer name?"

Axel looked up, surprised. "Axel. And yours?"

"Roxas."

_Roxas._ Axel wordlessly tasted the name, letting it roll across his tongue. It wasn't any ordinary name, he knew that. But for some reason, the uniqueness of the name made it really wonderful.

"Nice name." Axel smiled. "I'll remember that."

"Well, if ya get any more penal servitude, you'll probably remember my name whether ya like it or not." Roxas cheerfully joked.

Axel chuckled slightly. When he got quiet again, he realized it was the first time he had gotten close to laughing in... well, plenty of _years_, at least. He looked at Roxas. If a person managed to get Axel laughing, then that person was definitely someone that Axel would grow to like.

A door opened before a light voice called, "Roxas! Come here, now!"

"Comin'!" Roxas answered.

The door was shut and Roxas turned back to Axel, deeply sighing. He shook his head a little before getting up from the chair. He glanced at the empty plate in front of Axel, his eyes somewhat quizzical.

"Have ya finished that?" Roxas asked.

Axel reluctantly nodded. He actually didn't want Roxas to go, but he more of less had to. Axel lifted the tray and reached it out to Roxas, who took it.

Roxas straightened up and tilted his head to one side as he looked down at Axel, who remained sitting at the table. "Well, I guess I'll see ya tomorrow, then." He said, a thin smile curving his lips.

"Yeah, I guess." Axel agreed, smiling back.

Roxas nodded before starting to walk toward the double-doors that he had come from before. Axel turned around, following him with his gaze until he disappeared into the kitchen. Axel _really_ liked him.

_Roxas... I'll remember that name for sure._

* * *

**A/N:** OMG, I can't believe I gave Roxas an Alabama dialect! XD I wanted to experiment a little and this is the way it turned out. But still, yay for Roxy! XP So... review? Please? -Puppy eyes- 


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